New Towers at Turkey Hill take Advantage of Wind Power

By December, there will be two new windmills in operation to help power Lancaster County. One windmill is already working here in Lancaster County. PPL, which owns and will operate the wind powered machines, is working on the finishing touches of the second windmill.

Many people have stopped to stare at the towering wind machines that will soon produce environmentally safe electricity.

Sometime in 2008, the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority Company and the PPL teamed up to place two new windmills on Turkey Hill in Manor Township.

The Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority leased the land they owned to PPL. The two companies spent $9.5 million dollars on the whole project.

“It was a combined effort of a coordinated team between the landfill authority, PPL, a general contractor and the construction crews who actually performed the work and built what you see today,” said Dan Lowell, an intern for PPL who worked on the project during the summer.

In the beginning of the project, there was a lot of planning. The workers spent 22 months studying the wind. They used a device to help determine the wind change. Afterward, they spent about 10 months studying birds. The companies researched the birds’ migration route.

“We had to make sure that the route didn’t intercept with propellers of the windmills and so that the birds wouldn’t get hurt,” said Ed Gordon, a board member of the L.C.S.W.M.A.

Gordon concluded after spending many hours of watching and recording birds, they were ready to start putting up the first windmill.

According to plant officials, the windmills will produce non-carbon electricity. Their main purpose is to use power without affecting the environment. So the windmills will be powered by wind. It will not affect the environment or people.

“The windmills are going to be there for many years to come,” Gordon said.